Shiver With Antici-

Yup, the colder weather has arrived. My days of sitting on the balcony, basking in the warm sun, are tucked away for the year. They’ll return next year, for sure.

The House

After quickly getting the house cleaned out, I put it on the market. Less than two weeks later, I got an offer. I ended up selling for less than I wanted but a confluence of factors were at play. Before I listed my house, there were three other houses on my street, with nearly identical layouts to my house, up for sale. Two of them had sold. Then, one of them came back on the market listing for $10k less than they originally listed for. I don’t know the reason for why that sale fell through but it wasn’t helping me sell mine!

I’ve already moved into my condo and didn’t want to keep maintaining and paying for a house that was empty. It was worth it for me to accept the low offer and be done with it.

The house officially closes later this week but I’m considering it done. I’ve done everything I need to do for now.

Related but unrelated, I’ve had so many shed related conversations with my neighbours these past couple weeks. One neighbour offered to pay to have the shed between our two homes taken down because it ruined their view…of the beige vinyl siding of my house? I don’t get it. I let him take down the shed. Afterwards, he let me know they’d probably be moving which just left me even more puzzled as to why this shed was so important to remove. I still don’t get it.

The Class

October was also the month of my food writing class from UCLA. It was only four weeks long. The class size was small with 9 people having signed up and only 6 people attending.

The bulk of the class was working on an 800 word piece and iterating on it over the three weeks in between classes and receiving feedback from the teacher and classmates during class. Everybody was very supportive, friendly, and helpful. There were some talented writers in the group and I definitely wish to raise my writing to their level.

There were little tidbits that proved helpful and I wondered how I’d apply this to a regular writing routine, especially around restaurant reviews. It wasn’t until after everything was completed that I was struck with an idea for a new project that is starting to excite me. I’ve already started designing it!

The Life

It felt like a hectic month between just the house and class but there’s all of the other things with day-to-day life. I spent this month catching up on things I had been putting off and as a result, my to-do lists have been shrinking. It’s been very satisfying.

Interestingly, one of the few projects I’ve been putting off is “me”. I have a project labelled Self-care that I’ve been ignoring and with the weight being lifted from completing these other projects, it is perhaps time to lift some new weights and get into better shape.